Day 2 - English Harbor, Antigua

Today we slept in!  It felt so good after all those weeks of 5:15AM boot-camp wake up calls!  We did a whole lot of nothing today.  The weather turned out to be beautiful today, but again the weather is pretty much beautiful every day.  We were worried at first, as we woke up to some very dark clouds.  That soon passed and the entire day was full of sunshine and a refreshing breeze.   The islands weather is pretty consistent year round, generally between 75 and 85 degrees, with the occasional seasonal rainfall.   

As I mentioned yesterday, we are staying at The Inn at English Harbor.  There are only 6 rooms that sit on the beach and we are lucky enough to have one!  While the other rooms are beautiful and sit in a quant, English style courtyard, we get to wake up every day to the sand at our feet.  The Caribbean Sea is literally 30 steps from our back porch!  The hotel is owned and inspired by the many European tourists who visit here, which brings me to my next point.  We discovered why the island draws so many Europeans.  It was originally discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and was permanently settled as colony of the British Empire in 1692.  Antigua then became an independent state in 1981.  Today most of the 86,000 inhabitants are West African, with a mixture of British and Portuguese.  It is also a prime vacation spot for the English (similar to Florida for Americans).  We did hear that Antigua was Kate and Prince Williams second choice for their honeymoon!  Needless to say there is no shortage of tea and marmalade here! 

Our hotel provides free boat rides (well, jetty’s) over to Nelson’s Dockyard from 9 – 5PM every day.  Jeff and I had enough sun, so we boarded the dingy for a short 5 minute ride over to the Dockyard.  As mentioned yesterday, this is the home of Antigua’s sailing and yachting events, but it is most notably known for being one of the oldest and well preserved British naval bases in the Western hemisphere.  It was named after Admiral Horatio Nelson who lived here in the late 1700s and it dates back to 1671, when the first boat entered.  Antigua has done a great job of preserving this historical site.  You can walk through the dockyard and still see remains of the old sail loft, the blacksmith shop and the original home to the British naval officers.  The little island is also full of shops and restaurants that sit alongside the canal. 

Tomorrow we are renting a private boat to tour the island by sea!  We are very excited.  While Antigua is rather small, 108 square miles to be exact, its windy roads and numerous, natural harbors make it difficult to see it all by foot.  Till tomorrow, sleep tight.

XOXO

Jenn & Jeff